


a heart full of love

by lesmiserablol



Series: Zukka Week 2021 [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, Heartbeats, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Toph Beifong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 06:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesmiserablol/pseuds/lesmiserablol
Summary: The chorus of beating hearts had been quiet without them around, but Toph didn’t think much of it. Sparky’s heart rate sped up when he was angry and Katara’s shot up out of annoyance when Sokka was messing around, so it was no surprise that it was much calmer with them gone. And Toph kinda missed having those losers around.She wouldn't dare admit that, though. Instead, the first thing she asks when they get back is, “Did you guys get any meat?”“We did, we got the best meat of all,” Sokka begins dramatically. “The meat of friendship and fatherhood.”He pats Zuko’s shoulder as he speaks, and while the rest of the group is distracted by the newcomers, Toph feels both Sokka and Zuko’s heart rates shoot up immediately. It takes her by surprise, and when they step away from each other, she feels their heart rates start to calm down.Weird.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Sokka, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Series: Zukka Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2211507
Comments: 40
Kudos: 277





	a heart full of love

**Author's Note:**

> Heehee, another fic for Zukka week day three, this time for the prompt "friends to lovers" <3

At first, Toph thinks it’s coming from Katara or Aang. 

She rolls her eyes, but she is used to it at this point. When she had first joined the group she noticed it, but didn’t say anything until she and Katara had a “girls day”, going to the spa and getting their makeup done. 

“You’re really pretty, Toph,” Katara tells her earnestly, and her heartbeat is regular. She’s not lying. Score.

Toph smiles. “Thanks, Katara. I would return the compliment, but I have no idea what you look like. For what it’s worth, Aang thinks you’re pretty.”

Katara’s footsteps hesitate, and then she resumes walking. “Aang? How...how do you know? Did he tell you?”

“Please,” Toph smirks. “I don’t only feel vibrations with my feet. I can feel people’s heartbeats, too. Your heart rate increases when you’re lying, when you're nervous, but also when you find someone cute.”

“So you always know when we’re lying?” Katara asks curiously. 

“Yep.” Toph pops the ‘p’. “But more importantly, Aang thinks you’re cute, and you like him back.”

“I guess there’s no point in denying it, then,” Katara laughs. “Honestly, I’m still confused. I don’t know what to do about it, and since we are so busy now trying to save the world, I don’t think I’ll do anything.”

“That makes sense." Toph nods. “I won’t tell anyone, by the way.”

“Thank you, Toph,” Katara says, and Toph can hear the smile in her voice. 

So anyway, feeling the constant increase of someone’s heart rate isn’t anything new or strange around here, and she doesn’t really pay attention to where it comes from. 

At least, not until Sokka and Zuko come back. 

The chorus of beating hearts had been quiet without them around, but Toph didn’t think much of it. Sparky’s heart rate sped up when he was angry, Katara’s shot up out of annoyance when Sokka was messing around, so it was no surprise that it was much calmer with them gone. And Toph kinda missed having those losers around.

She wouldn't dare admit that, though. Instead, the first thing she asks when they get back is, “Did you guys get any meat?” 

“We did, we got the best meat of all,” Sokka begins dramatically. “The meat of friendship and fatherhood.”

He pats Zuko’s shoulder as he speaks, and while the rest of the group is distracted by the newcomers, Toph feels both Sokka and Zuko’s heart rates shoot up immediately. It takes her by surprise, and when they step away from each other, she feels their heart rates start to calm down.

Weird.

While the others are talking or reuniting with the people that Sokka and Zuko broke out of a high security Fire Nation prison (she feels thoroughly annoyed that they didn’t invite her, but that’s for another time), Toph frowns, the wheels turning.

* * *

Toph intends to satisfy her curiosity about the whole situation, but they get a little sidetracked by Azula discovering them and attempting to burn down everything or whatever. They escape, and a few nights later, Toph is about to fall asleep when she hears something. She stills, listening closely. She created a tent out of rock, and a short distance away she can hear Suki and Zuko whispering together. 

She can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, but she sits up and plants her feet on the ground, feeling for any strange movements or surprise attacks. Is something wrong?

After a few seconds she relaxes slightly. Everything seems normal. Suki goes back to her tent, and Zuko walks into another tent where-

The tent where Sokka is. 

Toph grins. She’s not  _ technically  _ eavesdropping. She can’t hear what they’re saying, but she can feel both of their heart rates beating wildly from the moment Zuko walks in. She snickers to herself, raises her legs back to the foot rest she had created from the earth, and falls asleep soon after that.

* * *

It continues for a few weeks.

Zuko comes back from his trip with Katara. Sokka’s heart beats quickly.

Sokka turns to ask Zuko a question. Zuko’s heart pounds.

They are standing close to each other. She feels their hearts going crazy.

Sokka tells a joke and Zuko laughs. Sokka’s heart rate goes through the roof.

They all go to the beach. Toph can’t “see” well in sand, but she doesn’t need to in order to guess Zuko’s reaction to Sokka throwing his shirt off.

Here's the thing: Toph is mature. More mature than Sokka has been in the times when he vented to Toph about Aang being so oogie about his sister. Nah, Toph isn’t like that. She doesn’t think something like this is gross. 

She thinks it’s _hilarious_. After all the weeks she spent listening to Sokka rant about “the angry jerk firebending jerk prince with a scar”, here he is, staring at the jerk in question, heart eyes so obvious that Toph doesn’t need to see them to know they are there.

And Zuko isn’t much better. He used to brood in peace, keeping an awkward distance from the rest of the group and not participating in conversations. He would eat dinner with them then excuse himself to bed so quietly that sometimes they didn’t realize he was leaving until he was already gone. But now he’s always sitting next to Sokka, looking for Sokka, even talking about Sokka. 

Toph can recognize two oblivious idiots in need of a push in the right direction. So when she sees a window to talk with Zuko alone, she grabs onto his arm tightly and insists that it is her turn for a field trip.

She starts by trying to be subtle, to beat around the bush.

“Any girlfriends back in the Fire Nation?”

“Not really.”

“Isn’t Sokka annoying?” 

A shrug.

“Sometimes I want to punch him in the mouth...anything you want to do with his mouth?”

Okay, Toph doesn’t say the last one, but when it comes to her mind she starts cackling to herself and Zuko takes a step away from her.

She doesn’t know how much time they have to spend “looking for Aang”, so she sighs and gets to the point. She decides to launch into her backstory, explaining her upbringing, how the others found her, the way her parents’ disapproval echoes in her mind and seems to hang over her wherever she goes...

“All I ever wanted was for my parents to love me, and to accept me for who I am and who I love,” she says pointedly.

“Mhmm,” Zuko hums, and Toph knows immediately that he wasn’t listening to a word she said.

“Are you hearing me?” she snaps, stopping in her footsteps. Zuko jumps slightly at her sudden shouting. “I’m trying to tell you that I like girls!”

He stops walking, and there is silence for several moments before he says, “You do?”

“Yes,” she says, then waits. 

“Me too,” he says softly, then lets out a frustrated groan. “I mean...ugh, no, that’s the opposite of what I meant to say. I mean I understand how you feel, because…I like boys,” he finishes, and it sounds more like a question than a statement. She nods. 

“I know,” she tells him. “Your heart goes wild around him.”

“I didn’t say...I don’t...who did I...” he stammers, and she smiles in his direction as she feels his heart rate pick up nervously.

“You didn’t need to say anything, Sparky. Neither of you did.”

Zuko sighs in resignation. “I guess this is the part where you tease me endlessly for having a crush on Sokka.”

Toph punches his arm. “Well when you say it like that, now I don’t want to! But don’t worry, I’ll resume my teasing before you know it.”

He lets out a quiet laugh and together they start walking again, the silence between them comfortable until Zuko breaks it.

“Hey Toph?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah. My pleasure and all that.”

* * *

Between defeating the Fire Lord, attending Zuko’s coronation, and trying to get the ball rolling on damage control and reparations and peace treaties blah blah blah, Toph graciously decides to pause on interfering with the love life of her friends. Aang and Katara start being oogie about each other more openly, much to Sokka’s dismay, and as they reunite over the months and years that follow, she smiles as she observes how Zuko and Sokka act around each other now. As ridiculous as they were and still are, she’s happy for them, they are (and here is where she internally gags) perfect for each other. 

Even two years after the war, their hearts still skyrocket like they did so often in the days before Sozin’s comet. The three of them are eating dinner in the palace during one of their frequent reunions. Katara and Aang had left on Appa earlier that afternoon, and they are going to pick up Sokka and Toph in a few days to take them back home. Maybe Toph is third wheeling here, but between being the third wheel to Katara and Aang or Zuko and Sokka, she chose the most bearable option. They don’t get too oogie in front of her most of the time, and they never make her feel excluded. 

“It’s sweet that after all this time, both of your hearts still go wild around each other,” Toph teases, sticking a dumpling in her mouth. 

Sokka had been telling some random story that Toph has heard too many times, Zuko's heart pounding as he watched him speak, but at Toph's interruption Sokka stops talking and he drops his chopsticks. Zuko starts choking on his drink, and Toph frowns, swallowing the food in her mouth.

“No,” she says, a horrible, _terrible_ thought coming to her mind. It can’t be true. Not even these dunderheads are that stupid...right? Her mind races as she scrambles for a shred of evidence that she’s crazy, but she finds none. Nothing solid enough to prove to her that she isn’t surrounded by idiots.

“Do not...do  _ not  _ tell me you two haven’t actually figured out your feelings yet. I’ve given you both enough nudges to bruise your dainty skin!”

The uncomfortable silence stretches on for a few moments until Sokka actually laughs, and Zuko joins in with him.

_Spirits above._ Toph regrets everything in her life that led up to this moment. She should have gone with Aang and Katara, they would've been more bearable than...than _this_. _Anything_ would be more bearable than this.

“I hate it here.” Toph stands up from the table, her appetite suddenly gone. “I really...okay, I’ll leave you two alone to talk. And do  _ not  _ come find me until you have _actually_ sorted this out.”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://bisexuallsokka.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
